Red Sox Journal: Lackey to throw BP

BOSTON — John Lackey is scheduled to throw live batting practice on Saturday — the first time the right-hander will throw to hitters since his offseason Tommy John surgery.“Lack has been throwing really...

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TIM BRITTON
Posted Sep. 7, 2012 @ 7:13 pm

BOSTON — John Lackey is scheduled to throw live batting practice on Saturday — the first time the right-hander will throw to hitters since his offseason Tommy John surgery.

“Lack has been throwing really good in the bullpen,” manager Bobby Valentine said. “Now, we’ll set up some hitters for him tomorrow. I don’t know if he’s fully recovered, but it sure is close. He’s really throwing the ball well.”

Lackey underwent the surgery on his right ulnar collateral ligament on Nov. 1. While Valentine didn’t rule out the possibility of Lackey pitching in the majors before the end of the season, it’s much likelier the right-hander will get a look in an instructional league game.

“You’d have to think it’s a couple of weeks away from being able to pitch in a game,” Valentine said.

Watching and waiting

As tough as it’s been to play for the Red Sox over the last month, it’s been even harder to watch for Will Middlebrooks.

Middlebrooks broke his right wrist on Aug. 10 in Cleveland, and he’s been stuck in a cast ever since.

“I’m a competitor just like anybody else here,” Middlebrooks said Friday. “I want to get out there and play, do my job and help out the team. It’s pretty tough being a cheerleader.”

Middlebrooks has been taking ground balls on the infield for most of the month, but he hasn’t been able to do much else with the cast on.

“I’m still in the recovery stage of it, just healing,” he said. “Hopefully, sometime in the next week or two I get out of this [cast]. We had a CAT scan, everything looks good, it’s healing up right, nothing’s displaced. Definitely no surgery, so it looks good.”

That surgery won’t be required remains the good news. However, with Middlebrooks still looking at another week or two in that cast, the chances of him making a return this season appear slim.

Hopes dim for Papi

With each passing day, the chance that David Ortiz returns in 2012 gets smaller and smaller.

There were no “earth-shattering” updates on Ortiz as the Red Sox returned home on Friday, and Valentine acknowledged that the team isn’t planning on a comeback for its designated hitter.

Ortiz has played in one game since July 16, when he injured his right Achilles rounding the bases on an Adrian Gonzalez home run. He received a platelet-rich plasma injection on Aug. 27 with the hope that it would kick in after about 10 days and allow him to return this season.

Boston is still waiting for the injection to offer relief.

“He’s feeling good,” said Valentine. “But I haven’t heard anything about any baseball activities that are planned.”

Atchison getting close

Scott Atchison doesn’t yet know where his next rehab outing may be. He just knows that the outing after that should be in a major-league game.

Atchison has appeared in two games for the PawSox — the last minor-league team still playing in the Boston organization — over the last week, tossing 21/3 scoreless innings. He’s allowed one hit, which he subsequently erased with a double play.

In an ideal world, Atchison would pitch again on Sunday before being activated by the Red Sox when he’s eligible to come off the 60-day disabled list on Sept. 12. Pawtucket entered Friday with a 2-0 lead in its series with Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. A victory Friday or Saturday would mean there’s no need for a game Sunday.

If that’s the case, Atchison would throw in a simulated game at Fenway Park.